Teleconference Minutes
September 12, 2015
Welcome-Larry: Tradition Nine states ACA, as such, ought never be organized, but we may create service boards or committees directly responsible to those they serve.
Attendees: Larry A, Mary Jo, Ines, Martin, and Marjbrit
Guest Introductions: Paul (Ct) 7th time, Joan (IA) numerous conference calls, Hasse from Copenhagen (1st time), John (Santa Barbara) MOS Chair- 22nd call, Tracy (New York) possibly 9th call, Jim (San Francisco) 1st time, Patty (Colorado) 3rd call, Bonnie (San Antonio, TX) around 18th call, Marietta (CT) 16th call, David (England) Denise (VA),
Wayne (Toronto, Canada), Matt (WI) Westlake IG Secretary, 5th call, Mona (Chicago),
Jeffrey (Prague) 1st call, Terry (Alaska) 3rd time, Robin (TX) 13th or 15th call
Minutes: Motion to approve the minutes of the July 11th, and August 8th, 2015 ACA WSO Teleconference Meetings. (Ines) Motion carried unanimously.
Committee Reports
Finance Committee- Mary Jo: The full report for August is on the repository. Increase in current assets is $20,000 which is explained on Profit &Loss statement. 7th Tradition donations are listed as a sub tab on the Treasurer’s report. Looking for advice for an inventory specialist contact me at [email protected]
Literature Committee – Larry and Special Worker, Robin: The full report may befound in the repository. The Comline is in full production. Translations are ongoing. Please send comments to [email protected]
Ines-Spanish translation work is proceeding regularly
ACA WSO Distribution Center-Mary Jo: The office staff reported that there are a couple of reports on the repository for yearly sales comparisons. There is one in particular that shows product sales and dollar sales comparison from last year to this year including the count of the different products and the sales comparison to a year ago. Dollar sales aren’t completely accurate because there are shipping charges included and so on, but it is close. You can see a significant increase in areas like the big red books and the workbooks in addition to the meditation hard books which we didn’t have a year ago. One of the issues we are confronting when it comes to inventory is the tri-folds because they are bundled in 10’s now. Last year we had both bundles and singles so it’s an ongoing issue. Staff reported that we now have 1484 active meetings. In addition, the Board is looking to hire a couple of additional staff members especially an accounting assistant and are in the process of doing that.
Member and Public Service - Chair, John: As a newcomer my first month has been spent on learning about MPS and how it works. I’m trying to figure out a job description of what I am supposed to do and figured out I need to load a monthly report and monitor the operations of the MPS special worker and also need to be able to perform the duties in case she has any difficulty and need to get committee approval when asking request for actions by special workers. Also I would like to do some other work as assigned to me by the board so I am asking the Board for approval of that. I’ve also been trained by the MPS special worker, thanks Denise, on how to handle incoming messages so I have the capability of taking over in the event of an emergency. I’m working on establishing what the MPS Committee is and was hoping to start up a set of support calls between us and I also want to look for volunteers to help out. Thank you for letting me be of service. Denise would you like to share:
Special Worker, Denise: For the month of August we received 874 emails, I sent out 1,020 emails and we received 118 Vonage voicemails. We made international connections with Canada, Denmark, Finland, Russia, Slovakia Switzerland, United Kingdom and Zambia. I just want to thank everyone on the board, the committee chairs and everybody in the office for helping me and giving me feedback and guidance this month. It’s helped me so much with reaching out to the adult children that reach out to us, so thank you so much. Most of the calls were about ordering information, meeting changes, finding meetings, starting meetings and literature information.
Hospitals & Institutions – Joan: This report covers both July and August 2015. We had 15 requests for books, BRB’s and workbooks to be sent out to inmates which were filled by the distribution center. The review process of the H & I handbook has been completed and final edits will be done soon. I can be contacted through the “Contact Us” feature on the ACA Website if anyone needs to learn more about H & I.
Intergroup Liaison-Martin: Nothing to report this month.
Website and Database Committee Report- Larry: The full report is posted the repository. Overall inquiries were 50,686 during the course of the month; that’s down about 11½% from July. The number of new inquiries to the website was 31,000 which decreased by 7.9%. There is a higher bounce rate of single page visitors meaning those who only visited the entry page and had no further interaction with the site. The bounce rate for this month was 60% which is up 15% but is still considered good by most industry standards. The concern would be the increased trend in the bounce rate. Problems continue with the “Meeting Update” process. Gloria and Centuria are continuing to identify and resolve the problems that have been encountered. The Website updates need to support the ABC proposals and registration forms are still pending review.
European Committee – Majbrit: This month has been all about preparing for the European Convention in Helsinki. For that event we have posted the minutes from the business meeting on the Repository. When I was in Helsinki, I aimed to talk to every country and I did. We are now investigating how much money it would cost to get machine translations. I would like to invite anyone to step up if they want to do service on the European Committee. I can be contacted at [email protected]
OPPM Review Committee - Mary Jo: We continue to meet weekly and go through the OPPM and make any necessary revisions and we’re making good progress although there is a long road to go. The changes will be reviewed by the full board once the committee has completed their work on the proposed changes.
2016 ABC Liaison Report – Larry: We settled on a site for the 2016 ABC. The ABC will be held in Delray Beach, Florida. We will also be hosting the ACA World Convention which was previously named the World ACA Convention but the acronym left a lot to be desired so we re-named it the ACA World Convention (AWC). The registration forms and all the information regarding airports, ground transportation, driving, hotels and restaurants are on the website under the 2016 ABC. The deadline for registration is March 11th. Please print the information out and take them to your groups and remind them that we will be convening in Delray Beach in seven months for the Annual Business Conference and the first ever ACA World Convention hosted by the WSO.
Executive Committee – Majbrit: We’ve approved the number of tri-folds and literature to be printed. (Mary Jo) For the month of August we actually approved purchases of Newcomer Pamphlets, hardcover BRB and tri-folds.
No Old Business
New Business:
Motion 1: The Board validates on the record the Board's Specific Concurrence to reclassify certain existing copies of literature and coins, as well as new coins and new literature and revisions, as Historical Archive Materials and reclassify their value as Long Term Assets. (Mary Jo)
Motion carried unanimously
Motion 2: The Board validates on the record the Board's Specific Concurrence to authorize the Chair to sign the contract to host the ABC/AWC at the Duncan Center in Delray Beach, Florida. The mandatory registration deadline for both the ABC & WAC shall be March 11, 2016. (Larry)
Mary Jo abstained. The balance of the trustees were in favor. Motion passes.
Motion 3: The Board validates on the record the Board's Specific Concurrence to pay an additional $215 to add auto correction to the shopping cart to minimize the payment errors resulting from mistyped city, states or countries. (Larry)
Motion carried unanimously.
Motion 4: Routine expenditure of $500 or less be subject to approval of the executive committee rather than the full board and that those items be part of the Executive Committee report during the monthly board Teleconference. The Executive Committee or board may also decide that an item is of such significance that it should be referred to the full board for approval. (Mary Jo)
Motion carried unanimously
This concludes our Agenda. Thank you all very much.
Any guest comments or questions?
Summary of guest comments: Guest comments focused primarily on definition of Closed/Open Meetings, Registration for 2016 ABC and when the Laundry List Workbook will be available for Purchase***
Announcements: Larry - Proposals may be submitted for the 2016 ABC. The deadline date is September 30th so please use Survey Monkey. All proposals will be vetted, translated and readied for the ABC in April 2016.
The next ACA WSO Board Teleconference is scheduled October 10, 2015 at 2:00 p.m. EST.
Is there a motion to adjourn the meeting? 2nd to the motion?
Mary Jo - Motions to adjourn
Ines - Second the motion
Any questions, comments about the motion to adjourn the meeting?
Motion carried unanimously.
Closed the Meeting with the Serenity Prayer
